DefinitelyDressage.com

Last Thursday I lost my bestest mate and wonderful riding horse Merlin after colic surgery following a severe colic attack from strangulating lipomas, I never realised how common a problem these are for older horses particularly geldings. Merlin was 15yo.



He had over 3m of lower intestine removed and lots of lipomas were taken off and we all thought he would recover as he was doing so well but it obviously wasn't meant to be and on Thursday his lower intestine ruptured further past the op site so sadly that was the end.

I bred him myself and had broken him in and trained him all his life so it was terribly sad for me to lose such a wonderful kind horse.

We managed to get an animal burial and retrieval company to bring him home and he is now buried in the corner of one of our front paddocks. His best buddy Zeus [my 4yo PRE stallion who he was minder and best buddy with] was pretty upset when I had to rush Merlin off to the vet clinic but he has settled down over the past week and is slowly getting used to life on his own now.

We are all still very sad about the outcome but that's life with horses isn't it.

This week's disaster on Wednesday was a stupid young girl T-boning my Ford Ranger farm ute from behind at warp speed while I was doing a right turn into a small local country road.

There I was quietly driving myself to work and had slowed to about 15-20km/hr to turn right into the road which is on an oblique angle to the main road and has limited visibility of the intersection for traffic coming down that little road so you have to go into it quite slowly when WHAMMO!
My reaction was like - seriously WTF was that?! I hit my head on the door pillar and had a wee bit of whiplash but generally felt ok, I drive with a thumbless grip on the wheel so that if anything happens to the car I don't end up breaking my thumbs as the wheel whips around.

My bet is that she was either texting or on the phone or gawping at something else instead of the road and didn't see me until the last minute whereupon she stupidly decided to pass me on a blind bit of road, collected the side of my car and then shunted me sideways along the wrong side of the road while she did low flying airplane aerobatics - hit a handy power pole, went down a bank and ended up parked into a farm fence. The police officer said she said she was blinded by the sun - which was "interesting" considering the sun was almost directly BEHIND us as it was only about 8.15am in the morning.

I had a moment of panic when I couldn't get my car door open but eventually managed to kick it open and get out. The other driver eventually climbed out of her wreck with phone in hand... I can't be sure but I remember wondering why she seemed to be talking on it already....

I'm so glad she didn't hit the local school bus or a mum with kids in the car going off to the local school, and that my ute is built like a brick dunny so it absorbed most of the impact and didn't roll, luckily I kept it on the road and stopped fairly straight, the steering is smashed and the front wing and drivers door and sills are crumpled, it could have been a LOT worse. The Nissan Tiida she was driving will probably be a writeoff as the entire body is smashed up including the roof where she hit the pole. She was lucky to come out of that with only sore ribs and bruising according to the ambulance medics.

Geez Baroque I am so sorry for your loss. I know three horses that were put down due to lipomas.

Baroque, i am so sorry for your loss, RIP poor Merlin, that is such a wonderful photo of the two of you.

As for the wreck, thank goodness you are not more severely hurt,

may she have learned a lesson.

Godspeed Merlin. And hugs for Baroque. What a beautiful boy he was.

Look at his sweet face, so attentive and full of character - you raised a beautiful animal. Condolences to you. I'm so glad you were able to bring him home, that means a lot.

I'm so sorry, for both the accident and the loss of your magnificent boy. What a wonderful picture of both of you. Hugs.

So sorry for your loss, Baroque. He was beautiful.

And sorry for the accident. Glad you will be ok, but it is very traumatic!

Hugs and hopes things get better for you fast.

So sorry about Merlin. And glad you're okay after the accident.

So sorry for your loss, what a beautiful picture to remember him by

Glad you weren't hurt in the accident and hopefully things will start looking up for you soon

I'm so sorry for the loss of your beautiful boy.

I'm sorry. What a miserable time you have had. I hope things start looking up for you.

RIP Merlin. What a handsome boy.

So sorry things have been bad. Jingles for a quick turn around.

Susan

Rest in peace beautiful Merlin, so sorry for your loss and the trouble this week.
Jingles that you feel better soon.

Sorry for your loss

I'm so sorry to hear about you losing your Merlin That is very sad.
Then to have a crash, not a good couple of weeks at all.

I am so sorry you lost your beautiful Merlin.

I know sometimes it seems like we're dealt more than we can take. My sincere sympathy to you for the loss of your beautiful bay friend.

So sorry for your loss, what a grand guy he was. You have had a rough couple of weeks, hugs to you Baroque.

A truly miserable week. So sorry about Merlin, and glad you are okay from the wreck. (((Baroque)))

I'm so sad for you and yours. When you are ready, come back and share more stories about your wonderful Merlin.
And I'm grateful you survived that crash mostly in one piece. Very scary.

Gentle hugs to you!!!

Oh, I am so sorry. The loss of Merlin must be so painful for you right now, and then to be hit by an idjit little girl is just too much. Hugs from waaaaaay across the big pond.

I am sorry to hear of your loss, he was a beautiful horse.

I'm so sorry to hear about Merlin and your accident. I hope life starts treating you better soon!

So very sorry. Such a beautiful horse.

Sorry about the loss of your dear Merlin.

Baroque, I am so sorry for your loss. Many hugs sent to your heart, and glad you are OK after the wreck!

I am so sorry for your loss. Merlin was a beautiful horse.

I am so sorry for your loss. Merlin was a beautiful horse.

Baroque, how is Zeus doing with the loss of his friend? And how are you doing?

I am so sorry for your loss, and for your horrid week. You will get through this. Sending love and strength and hoping you can see the glimmers of sun on the other side.

Sending healing vibes your way in your loss of Merlin.

I am so sorry for your loss.

Tough week for sure. So sorry for you!

I'm so sorry for the loss of your Merlin.
{{hugs}}

Thanks everyone for your lovely kind words. <3

Zeus is coping ok, he is a bit lonely without his big friend and he got very excited when I went out in the truck to get its COF inspection on Thursday and when I came back up the driveway an hour or so later he was running up and down the paddock yelling his head off thinking that Merlin was on board. I had to tell him that sadly no his mate wasn't coming home again.

I've put him where he can see the ladies in the distance, and the main flock of Arapawa ewes have been next to him for the past week which he seems to have enjoyed.

As my head has been very sore after cracking it on the door pillar I have not done much with the horses until yesterday when I worked 4 of the girls on the lunge and inhand.

Then I got the 60 or so ewes in and checked them all over as I had noticed a couple of them had slight flystrike and there were a couple of ewes that were hobbling about [also from those damned flies ]. The weather over summer and autumn here has been crazy - high temperatures plus lots of rain = lots of nasty flies... I had been doing preventative flystrike dosing on the sheep up until the last couple of weeks, when I just had no time to worry about them.

Rough, rough go, Baroque. I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope your body heals quickly, and your heart over time.

I am very sorry to hear about his passing. Having met him I know what a special horse he was.

Montymum wrote:I am very sorry to hear about his passing. Having met him I know what a special horse he was.

Thanks Montymum. Definitely one of the special ones!

Still thinking of you. Thanks for the check in. Hope the busy farm life helps.

Thanks everyone. Still feeling a bit miserable from time to time and a day doesn't go past that I find I am missing him.

I've been keeping myself very busy with lots of spinning and other craft work while I get myself psyched up to start riding the greenies. I've put myself down for a blacksmithing and wrought iron workshop in May along with a 4-6month correspondence course on wool preparation & spinning plus a number of other silk spinning and other day workshops over the next few months while we have winter.

Had to have my youngest Arapawa ram shot last weekend as he had got far too aggressive to handle and was getting very dangerous to be around, he went for me in the yards and knocked my feet off the top rail of the holding pen nearly catapulting me on top of him! He was targeting humans quite deliberately and I could see his hoof marks nearly 2m up the yard walls! He's been used for curry and dogfood so nothing is wasted.

The other 2 boys BountyBar and Bambam are being very happy chaps getting on with breeding their lovely ewes so hopefully we will have the clatter of little lamb feet in September again. This is Bambam. Now you can see why these guys can be so dangerous because of their horns!

Back in March we hosted the ANCCE judge at our place for the Spanish PRE studbook breeding evaluation in NZ and the 2 PRE horses I presented passed their evaluation with flying colours and are now qualified for breeding, so we will be having foals again next year.

Lovely photos. Rosa looks especially regal in that shot.

Glad BamBam is still around and doing his duty---and not behaving in a way that merits becoming a curry. Those horns are intense!

From one PRE owner to another your Rosea and Zeus are stunning! Congrats on them passing the evaluation. Bring on the foals!

Why do the ewe's get nasty with humans?

Those horns are scary looking!

Hayburner wrote:From one PRE owner to another your Rosea and Zeus are stunning! Congrats on them passing the evaluation. Bring on the foals!

Why do the ewe's get nasty with humans?

Those horns are scary looking!

Thanks! I've very pleased with them both. Looking forward to breeding Rosa later this year, I have semen banked from Dominante.

The ewes are lovely to work with and very friendly, its the rams [breeding males like Bambam] who get aggressive.

BamBam is the picture of innocence, and the horses are pictures of elegance. I'm sorry you had to make the decision to send the ram to the curry pot. Outside of that, it sounds like life is a bit better these days.

Baroque, my ram Hadri attacked me once, i was able to grab his horns and throw him on the ground, and i sent my son for a knife and the crush emasculator, and removed the cause of his aggression right there and then, they can be very dangerous when aggressive! i hope you were not hurt.

I raise most of my sheep for meat, i think a great life and one bad day is an okay trade off, and perhaps a better one then the meat i might buy in a store, so the curry pot was a good place for mister nasty

Your horses really are stunning, keep us posted on their progress